The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1887-02-02
TIONESTA. Pa, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY Q, 1887


shore boats make ready. At leest 200
natives were ready to come off. They
knew that the cook had drugRed or
poisoned our coffee, and therefore sent
boat in advance Of the fleet 20 see in
what shape we were The boat came up
vary softly and rowed twice around us
before the Captain hailed and let them
know we were wide awake. Some sort
of signal was given from the boat, and
the fight opened at once. just the mo-
ment we saw the people on the junk get
ting ready to drift her down upon us we
gave them the grape from the six .poun-
der. They were not pistol-shot
away, with most of themen crowded aft,
and | verify believe that the one dis.
charged killed OF wounded twenty men.
was at the gun with two others, and a
man armed with a carbine was near us.
He fired six OF seven shots while we were
loading, and three or four musket shots
were fred at us. Our second shot drove
all who were left alive below matches,
and. believing that the carbineer could
keep them there, we ran the gun TO the
starboard side to beat off the boats.
1t was high time. While the first dis
charge of the gun had done for score
of them, they were reckless and des-
perate lot and would not retreat. They
were provided with bombs, spears, blow
guns, and muskets, and the man who
was to sprinkle them with hot water had
beer shot dead at their first fire. As
soon as we got our gun over, some one
picked up the nozzle of the hose pipe and
turned it loose on every boat within
Dttf Nha hpf fn1l
might have carried us by boarding for
two hundred to ten is big odds. Such
screaming and shouting and shrieking as
they indulged in when the boiling hot
water spatterei over their half-naked
bodies was pan 1emonium of itself, and
all the time We kept playing on them
with the guns and the carbines. The fight
could not have lasted over seven or eight
minutes, and as soon as they began to
draw off ran my gun to the port side,
loaded with shell, and sent the missile
right through the junk's stern. Half a
dozen fellows rushed out of the hold and
jumped overheard, and l gave her two
more. When the third was fired there
was an explosion, probably of barrel Of
powder, which lifted her decks thirty
feet high and split her wide open. She
sank right there before our eyes, and the
walls of the wounded wretches who float
ed about for minute or two were dread
| full to hear.
! Captain Tabor felt that such treachery
as the natives had shown deserved the
severest punishment, and we turned
both guns loose on the village, and fired
forty or fifty shells. When daylight
came not human being was in sight.
Portions of the junk had been driven on
the beach, and the natives had fled and
left everything behind them. The sharks
were probably attracted to the spot by
the sounds of firing, and they certainly
had a rich feast. | never saw them so
thick before nor since, and as they fished
up the bodies from the bottom around
us three or four would seize and tug at a
single one and quickly tear it to pieces.
l was sent ashore with flag of truce,
with four armed men to make it re.
spected, and on the sands l found the
body of one of our firemen, and not far
off that of our cook After some hard
work induced the head man to come in
out of the forest and talk to me. His
name was Wung Hang, and more hum
BILE man | never met. He had laid it all
to the people on the Junk. The natives
among our crew had conspired with the
fellows at Ke-Lung to secure passage
aboard and overpower us. When this
game could not be worked, owing to the
refusal of the Captain to take them, they
followed on after us in the junk, and
found cheerful co-operator in old
WHng- Hang, the trader. He denied
taking any part in the affair personally,
and added that he did his best to dis
suade his people from making the attack.
His loss, according to his own figures,
was sixty odd killed, while almost every
one else was wounded or scalded. Five
men got ashore from the junk, which
had nearly fifty men aboard of her.
We were in situation to take every
dollars worth of goods the old rascal
had in his store-houses, but Captain
Tabor had no intention of blasting his
prestige in that fashion. We held the
trader to the contract already made, and
landed our goods and put his aboard.
He had been soundly thrashed, and like
plenty of other men under the same cir
cumstances he respected the thrashers.
He supplied us with the best of pro.
visions, detailed natives to do all our
work, and when we were ready to leave
he supplied US with five natives, and
gave Captain Tabor full power to decap-
itate them at the first signs OF disobe-
dience. During the next three years, or
until l severed my connection with the
steamer, we got around to the island
about once in six months, and old Wung-
Hang always had a good bit of cargo
ready for us, and would deal with no one
else. .-Ne,0 York San.